November 25: The ‘Kumari Bank NewBiz Startup Summit and Awards’ kicked off today (November 25) amid a programme at Radisson Hotel, Kathmandu. The program is being organized by the New Business Age Pvt Ltd as an initiative to recognize and honor a number of best-performing startups and to encourage innovative business ideas across the country, according to the organizer.
‘Best Startup of the Year 2021’ would be provided a cash prize of Rs 100,000 along with a trophy and a certificate while the “Second Best Startup of the Year 2021” will receive a trophy, a certificate and a cash prize of Rs 50,000. The startup bagging the third position, or the “Third Best Startup of the Year 2021”, will be presented with a trophy, a certificate and a cash prize of Rs 25,000.
Similarly, seven startups, or one from each province, will also be felicitated during the ceremony as emerging startups from provinces. Similarly, a startup led by women will be honored with the "Best Women-led Startup of the Year 2021” while two businesses that started as startups and have now succeeded will be felicitated as “Special Recognition as Startup Success”.
Prior to the presentation of the awards and honors, New Business Age Pvt Ltd is holding a panel discussion titled “Search for Nepal Unicorn: Success and Challenges” where leading entrepreneurs, policymakers and business experts will discuss problems faced by the startup enterprises as well as policies to support their growth.
Lino Ahlering, MD of Daraz Nepal (Alibaba Group), and Anjani Phuyal, Global CTO of Genese Solutions, are scheduled to share their international experiences during the programme. Juna Mathema, the co-chairperson of Women Entrepreneurship Development Committee, FNCCI; Ashraya Dixit, the manager of Operations of Hamro Patro; and Kewal Prasad Bhandari, the member secretary of National Planning Commission are the panelists in the panel discussion that will be moderated by Suman Shakya, an entrepreneur, consultant and certified trainer. The panelists will talk about the works done by the government to sustain startups in Nepal.
According to the organizer, the grand finale is a culmination of several activities over the last one year including the shortlisting of 40 out of 1,700 plus startups from across the country and collection of further in-depth information about them to prepare another shortlist of 30 startups. Similarly, two training programmes were also organized for the startups.
The training held on October 29 on hybrid platform was open to all and the second one held at the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) on November 15 was focused on the 30 shortlisted startups.
Kumari Bank Limited is the title sponsor of Newbiz Startup Summit and Awards 2021 while the Garima Bikas Bank Limited is the co-sponsor of the event. The Startup & Innovation Committee of the FNCCI, Nepalese Young Entrepreneurs’ Forum and Dish Home Fibernet are the associate partners. The summit and awards programme is supported by Citizen Life Insurance, IME and NLG Insurance Company Limited. The infra partner of the program is Mansiri Trading and the technical partner is Mango Tech.
New Business Age has been organizing various events in the corporate sector including Tourism Aviation, Money Expo, Higher Secondary School Rating-Ranking-Awards, Business School Rating-Ranking-Awards, FDI in Nepal, Newbiz Conclave and Business Excellence Awards. Earlier in January, New Business Age had organized “Newbiz Business Women Summit and Awards 2021’ to honor working and entrepreneurial women of Nepal in various categories.
